Sunday Edition: 3rd August

Disclosure: S3 Consortium Pty Ltd and its associated entities may hold direct or indirect interests in securities referred to in this publication and may receive fees or other forms of consideration from entities mentioned. These interests and arrangements may create a potential conflict of interest in the preparation of this material.

The information contained in this communication is provided for general information purposes only and may relate to speculative investments. It does not constitute financial product advice, and has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any investment decision.

~5 years ago, the great battery metals bull market kicked off.

It really started getting attention when Elon Musk called on more mining of battery metals in his “Tesla Battery Day” address (relive that famous sound bite here).

More recently, US critical metals and domestic re-industrialisation of strategic US industries had been quietly bubbling along...

Until on Friday, the US critical metals theme was solidified when the Trump administration said it would use “developing a vaccine during the pandemic” levels of speed and urgency to build out domestic critical mineral supply chains, source

We think this news nudged the US critical metals theme into the “its getting real now” stage in our “stages of macro theme lifecycle” model:

Read more about it in yesterday's Saturday edition: Catching the Next Wave: LKY, Critical Minerals & Our Portfolio Strategy

Here’s what else happened last week:

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ)

Rare earths has been on investors’ radars lately following the news of MP Materials securing $400M in equity funding from the US Department of Defence, and phone maker Apple taking a $500M offtake deal...

All to get their hands on US domestic rare earth supplies and processing.

SGQ is developing a high grade rare earths deposit in Brazil, and like MP Materials, it’s a large carbonatite hosted resource.

SGQ already has a defined JORC resource estimate of similar size to MP Materials.

SGQ’s JORC resource is of similar grade to the $10BN Lynas’ Mt Weld deposit in Australia.

Back in May, the miner Lynas flagged they were looking at rare earths assets in Brazil for growth options...

This week SGQ hit 13.5m of rare earths at an average grade of 12.34% from an auger drillhole.

The hole ended in mineralisation... meaning there could still be a lot more rare earths at depth.

This wasn’t a “director’s special” kind of hole either, this mineralisation discovery was found OUTSIDE of the existing resource estimate, about 1km away:

SGQ is currently drilling its rare earths/niobium project in Brazil to expand and upgrade its resource estimate.

SGQ has already defined the following JORC resource estimates::

• 40.6Mt of Rare Earths at grades of 4.13% TREO (total rare earths oxide), and;
• 41.2Mt of Niobium at grades of 0.63% (this asset is also next door to the world’s biggest niobium mine).

SGQ just closed a $5M capital raise and upsized its drilling program from the initially planned 3 rigs to a total of 5 drill rigs (more on that in our deep dive note from Monday).

Thursday’s announcement is exactly what we would have wanted to see from the first batch of auger drilling.

Mineralisation hit outside of SGQ’s resource area AND the hole ending in mineralisation which means there could be more rare earths when an RC/diamond rig is taken out to this part of the project for deeper drilling.

This week SGQ also delivered a bulk sample of rare earth material to MagBras - a Brazilian public/private initiative to aid local companies in the end-end production chain of rare earth permanent magnets.

SGQ has been collaborating in the MagBras initiative for a while now, but this week's news was the first time material was sent over for qualification.

Beyond the resource definition and development of a potential mine, SGQ is also looking to move downstream to capture some of the value that the Trump administration has been giving to rare earths producers.

We have seen how successful this can be for companies like MP Materials with those recent US DoD and Apple deals.

While MagBras is for the Brazilian market, and its very early days for SGQ, we are hoping any positive results in Brazil could pique the interest of those looking for raw materials to fill US facilities...

More on SGQ below.

AML3D (ASX:AL3)

On the topic of rare earths and MP materials - here’s a neat segway to our next portfolio company...

In a video interview with MP materials CEO after the US DoD invested in his company for national security reasons, he was asked what other US industry/sector aside from rare earths is about to get the USA DoD and Government “speed and urgency” demands thrust onto it...

First thing he said was US ship building - (listen to him say it here)

AL3 sells 3D printing systems to the shipbuilding, aerospace, defence and specialty manufacturing industries.

These systems “3D print” complex industrial metal parts on site for customers.

A big focus for AL3 is its growth in the US market.

This is backed by a recent letter of intent by the US Navy highlighting the forecast demand for 100 systems in the next few years... (AL3 sells these systems for about A$2M).

But this week's news was all about the Europe and UK markets, with AL3 signing a distribution agreement with Arc Additive Limited to fast track its push into the region.

AL3’s MD Sean Ebert said “We are seeing the same demand signals in Europe that are driving our phenomenal growth in the US across Defence but also Utilities and Energy”.

AL3 has $5M set aside from the ~$30M capital raise that it closed last year to establish a European technology base.

We think that these distribution deals work best when there are genuine synergies between the distributor and the product.

Now it is on to AL3’s new (non-exclusive) distribution partner Arc Additive to open some doors for AL3 to build up a presence in the European and UK market.

Solis Minerals (ASX:SLM)

This week SLM published geophysics results for one of its exploration targets in Peru.

SLM is currently drilling the first of its 3 targets and plans to drill the other two before the end of the year.

This week's results were from the third target in the queue.

We like that SLM now has clear geophysical targets sitting under previous channel sampling which has returned copper grades up to 3.23% from historical workings.

SLM now has 3 high priority targets to drill on this project (Cinto).

These targets all sit ~15km away from the Toquepala mine which contains a resource size of 3.3BN tonne copper resource, producing over 180ktpa copper:

Here are the three targets on SLM’s map:

Bring on the drilling...

Haranga Resources (ASX:HAR)

HAR has officially completed the acquisition of its US gold project.

We visited HAR’s project earlier this year, and it has:

• Historical drilling with gold deposits remaining open along strike and depth, along the region that was the centre of the Californian gold rush (where ~8.4Moz of gold was produced).
• Major infrastructure with over $90M in sunk capital (HAR is capped at less than $30M)
• A conditional use permit - meaning it can take its project into production a lot quicker than any other projects in California.
• District-scale expansion potential to expand the footprint
• Clear path to JORC resources and production

HAR’s project also has a 286,000 oz non-JORC gold resource at 9.28g/t.

(with 2008 data showing it might be up to ~682,000 ounces, more on this below)

...and new drilling is planned for mid-September.

We just got back from a site visit for the project which you can check out here: HAR: Richest section of the California gold rush Mother Lode and fully permitted processing plant.... and we saw it.

Mithril Silver and Gold (ASX:MTH)

MTH announced a set of sampling results from its silver and gold project in Mexico.

MTH is aiming to double its existing 373Koz gold and 11Moz silver JORC resource estimate through drilling out a number of district scale targets.

The biggest takeaway for us from Tuesday’s announcement came from Target 5... which is now bigger, spanning across a ~2km x 8km area and a ~1,200m elevation profile.

MTH is currently drilling with 2 rigs on site with the first still drilling at target area 1 (where the existing resource is).

MTH expects to add a third rig to the fleet later this year AND is expecting to drill targets 3 and 5 this quarter...

Here is a before-and-after of how the target areas have grown:

🚨NEW INVESTMENT - Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY)

The most talked about mine in the USA right now is MP Materials’ Mountain Pass mine.

It is the USA’s only operating rare earths mine.

And right next door is our latest investment Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY):

Rare earths are essential for permanent magnets right now... and critical to power future AI-driven robots and drones - key technologies for industry and defense.

(yep, turns out AI-robot wars are coming...)

Which is why the Pentagon (US Department of Defence) is acting on securing domestic rare earths supply as a top national priority amid supply chain risks from China.

The Pentagon just invested US$400M into MP Materials and is now its largest shareholder.

Recently there has been a lot of attention and capital starting to flow toward MP Materials from the US government AND from US investors.

And our bet is that some of that investor attention from the US will flow to LKY given its proximity to MP Materials.

Read more, see the 10 reasons we Invested, what we want to see next, and our Investment Memo on Our New Portfolio Addition: Locksley Resources (ASX: LKY)

Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)

This week RML appointed Dominari Securities to lead its listing on the NASDAQ.

Dominari is a US investment bank part-owned by Donald Trump Jnr and Eric Trump.

And yes, stating the obvious, the Trump brothers father is Donald Trump, the 47th President of the United States of America.

Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump are 14.8% owners of and advisors to Dominari Securities, the investment bank that has agreed to get RML listed on the NASDAQ.

Eric Trump said this about the RML appointed Dominari in a recent interview:

“They’re an amazing firm. They’ve brought a lot of great things to us in the past, and so many of those great things have worked out so incredibly well.”

(watch it here)

Read more: Trump backed US investment bank Dominari Securities agrees to list RML on NASDAQ

This news was big enough to capture the interest of AFR’s illustrious Chantlicleer who quoted some lines from our article here.

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ)

Two weeks ago the Pentagon (US Department of Defence) invested US$400M into America’s only rare earths producer - $16BN MP Materials.

Most of that cash was earmarked to upgrade MP’s rare earth magnet production facilities - which once expanded would need more raw rare earth material supply to operate at full capacity...

Then we saw the following article saying that the “United States has begun signalling interest in a trade agreement with Brazil focused on access to critical and strategic minerals, including niobium and rare earth elements”.

(Source)

We think our Investment SGQ could be one of the few winners with an asset outside of the US from the big flow of US capital into the critical minerals sector.

As a major company like MP could one day start looking around the world for assets with size/scale. We saw above that Lynas has referred to Brazil in the past as being a jurisdiction of interest (read more on Lynas interest in Brazil here).

Read more: SGQ: USA signals interest in Brazil rare earths and niobium in potential new trade deal

Emyria (ASX:EMD)

This week EMD signed an agreement to set up its first clinic to deliver psychedelic therapies for mental health conditions in Queensland.

The deal is with Avive Health at the 63 bed private hospital Avive runs in Brisbane.

This deal follows EMD’s landmark agreement last month with Australia’s largest health insurance company - Medibank.

Medibank will cover the cost of EMD's psychiatrist-led PTSD therapies for any of its eligible ~4 million members...

EMD is the first (and only) company in Australia to have the regulatory approval AND the backing of a major health insurer to deliver psychedelic assisted therapies.

And this new clinic will be EMD’s first entry into the Queensland market.

The EMD share price has been on a bit of a run since early July, going from 2.6c to a high as 5.1c, it's been good to see new investor interest in the company after having held the stock for a long time.

While it's still early days for EMD in its scale up phase, it feels like things are starting to really come together.

(Also, noting of course that the past performance is not an indicator of future performance, caution is advised when assessing past performance)

Read more: EMD secures first east coast site in Queensland to service Medibank members for psychedelic treatments

Sun Silver (ASX:SS1)

This week SS1 announced a 7% antimony assay result from within its 480M ounce silver equivalent JORC resource.

The thin interval was inside a larger 59m at 0.1% antimony assay.

So far so good for SS1 which is re-assaying antimony grades that are higher than the averages across $2.5BN Perpetua Resources project, which has 0.06-0.07% antimony grades.

SS1 has the largest pre production silver project on the ASX and in the USA.

Silver has been threatening new highs of late, and antimony prices are at record highs (and with national strategic importance to the US).

It's a good time for SS1 to be expanding its giant US based silver AND antimony project:

(Source)

In addition to the giant silver asset, could SS1 end up also having the biggest antimony resource in the USA?

Read more: SS1: Highest Grade Antimony Result. So Far...

Medtech IPOs Spur Talk of Broader US Health-Care Listing Revival (Bloomberg)

This week, Bloomberg reported that Medtech IPOs are breathing life into the US life-sciences sector after a tough year for the industry.

In the last two weeks two different medical devices companies have gone public including Shoulder Innovations Inc and Carlsmed inc for various device implants.

Bloomberg argues that US investors in the life sciences niche are turning to “because they are usually already generating revenue from approved products” and are considered both de-risked (from a regulatory perspective) and high-growth (from an earnings perspective).

Two medtech companies that we are Invested in are building their commercial footprint in the USA right now:

• EchoIQ (ASX:EIQ) - EIQ has developed an AI detection software that helps cardiologists detect heart diseases.
• Oneview Healthcare (ASX:ONE) - Sells a patient experience technology to hospitals that connects nurses, meal service, medical images, records, entertainment, etc... to help make the hospital run better.

Both EIQ and ONE have a product in the US market, and are looking to build up revenues through key partnerships.

ONE - through its partnership with Baxter (the largest seller of hospital equipment in the USA).

EIQ - through its partnership with SARC MedIQ (leading provider of imaging workflow solutions that sells to hundreds of healthcare facilities in the US).

As US medtech companies deliver successful IPOs on the overseas markets there is a chance that investor interest in the space trickles down to companies like ONE and EIQ.

On that note, another AI-driven heart disease monitoring software in the US just raised US$55M through a Series C placement at an undisclosed valuation:

(Source)

While the valuation is undisclosed, a US$55M Series C round must mean it’s pretty decent.

These kinds of private rounds provides a benchmark for what EIQ’s technology could be worth to US investors.

EIQ is still at the early commercialisation stage of its AI detection system for a heart condition called Aeortic Stenosis.

Read our latest EIQ article here: EIQ - who are they working with?

Oneview (ASX:ONE) - If anticipation was an asset (MST Access)

Company Snapshot Emyria (ASX:EMD): (GBA Capital)

Richard Werner Exposes the Evils of the Fed & the Link Between Banking, War, and the CIA - YouTube

China's Chokehold On The US Is Loosening | Doomberg

Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) - Expert Insight Series - July 2025

A word of caution...

While we aim to highlight developments in the small cap space, investing in early-stage and small cap companies - like those we cover - is inherently risky.

These companies often face funding challenges, regulatory hurdles, and market volatility. Announcements may reflect aspirations more than guaranteed outcomes.

Things can, and often do, change.

Just because a company has signed a deal, released drill results, or appointed a new director doesn’t mean success is assured.

Always assume delays, cost overruns, or results that don’t pan out.

We’re here to share insights, not offer personal financial advice - so please do your own research and speak with a licensed adviser before acting on anything mentioned.

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Bye for now.